About Open Wide & Step Inside

“Open Wide and Step Inside is a really exciting project that is delivering oral health education in a different and creative way using a cartoon animation and a cast of fun characters to engage children about oral health prevention advice.

An important part of the programme is to support teachers to deliver key oral health messages throughout the year as part of the Key Stage 1 curriculum using specially designed teacher resources from the animation, making sure children get the best advice about looking after their own teeth for life as part of their early years education”.

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Robert Witton, Director of Social Engagement & Community-based Dentistry, PDSE

Background and Context ...

Annually, £35 million is spent by the NHS on admitting children to hospital for tooth extractions. Our challenge was to produce a video-led campaign to engage 4-7 year olds and deliver a simple message on brushing your teeth twice a day and going to the Dentist regularly, in an engaging way.

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The Open Wide and Step Inside programme, delivered in partnership by Well Connected and Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise, previously launched in 2013, was generously funded by The Wrigley Company Foundation and was screened at Plymouth University's i-DAT- Over 3000 local school children aged between 5 and 7 years old saw the first film.

About the programme...

The pilot programme was supported via funding from the King Beduion Fund during 2013 – 2019 which has enabled us to create high quality resources and materials. We are extremely grateful for the generous donation and support from the Wrigley Company Foundation and King Beduion Fund for their support.

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The animation introduces us to ‘Geoffrey the Giant’ who lives in Toothypeg Land and is experiencing toothache but resisting a visit to see 'Daisy the Dentist'. With the help of friends including the faithful ‘Milly the Mouse,’ the ssssophisticated ‘Stephanie the Snake’ and the magical ‘Daisy the Dentist,’ Geoffrey learns the importance of looking after his teeth.

A song was also created especially for the campaign by Plymouth Music Zone.

Borrowing entertainment techniques from children’s television, we created a fun animation with an interactive element to make sure children had taken in the information. Fact cards, workbooks, a book and stickers reinforce the message in the classroom and at home.

All profits from the sale of OWSI resources are reinvested in the programme

Matt Cole, The Moment’s Executive Creative Director says

“Children’s entertainment is increasingly varied and sophisticated so when creating content for a young audience with such an important message the team really had to lean on their heritage as multi-platform storytellers. Thankfully we had a very collaborative client in the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise and Well Connected teams, who really pushed us to make ‘Open Wide and Step Inside’ as entertaining as possible. We’re all really proud of the results.”